Scars
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Shielded By The Ruthless Military Boss
I was an intern nurse working exhausting shifts, yet my mother constantly forced me into blind dates with wealthy, arrogant men to secure our family's social standing. During a terrifying hospital lockdown, an assassin disguised as a doctor held a scalpel to my throat. I was almost killed, but a high-ranking military colonel threw his own body down a flight of concrete stairs to shield me. I survived with cuts and bruises, but when I went home, my mother didn't care about my near-death experience. She was only furious that I had rushed out on my blind date with Preston, a rich financial analyst. She forced me to meet him to apologize. When Preston grabbed my arm, bruised me, and mocked my attack as a pathetic lie, my mother still took his side. "Men get angry," she told me coldly. "It's your job not to provoke them. You will beg for his forgiveness, or you are no longer welcome in this house." I had narrowly escaped an assassin, yet my own family was willing to feed me to a monster just for a fat paycheck and neighborhood gossip. My heart went completely dead. So, when the intimidating Colonel appeared, offering me maximum military protection through a sudden marriage, I didn't hesitate. I walked back into my parents' house and calmly slapped a crisp marriage certificate onto the coffee table. "I won't be apologizing to Preston. I got married today."
Chapter 1
"If you're going to order the salmon, make sure they don't overcook it. The last time I was here, it was practically cat food."
Caroline Thompson stared at the man sitting across from her. Preston Finch. Financial analyst. Ivy League graduate. The eighteenth blind date her mother had forced her into in the last two years.
He wasn't looking at her. He was using his silver fork to trace the menu like he was grading a flawed exam paper.
"The wine list here is a joke," Preston continued, snapping the leather bound menu shut. He finally looked at her, his chin tilted in perpetual judgment. "At my club in New York, we have a sommelier. Here? I wouldn't trust them to open a beer."
Caroline's fingers dug into the fabric of her dress under the table. This was her life now. Sitting across from arrogant men who thought a fat paycheck bought them the right to treat everyone else like peasants.
"So, Caroline," Preston leaned back, offering a smirk that was probably meant to be charming but landed closer to constipated. "My mother mentioned you're a nurse?"
"Intern nurse," Caroline corrected automatically. "At Washington United Medical Center."
"Right." The smirk deepened into outright dismissal. "Must be exhausting. All that cleaning up and taking orders. And the pay? Practically minimum wage, right? Honestly, a pretty girl like you should just find a guy who provides. Someone who makes enough so you don't have to wipe up vomit for a living."
A muscle ticked in Caroline's temple. She opened her mouth to tell him exactly where he could shove his financial advice, but her phone buzzed.
She never took personal calls on a date. But right now, it was the only thing keeping her from baptizing Preston with her ice water.
She glanced at the screen. Her breath hitched. It wasn't just the hospital. It was the direct emergency line from the Chief of Staff.
She answered it right there. "Thompson."
"Caroline." Dr. Alistair Cromwell never used her first name. His voice, usually dripping with academic condescension, was flat. Breathless. "Get back here. Now."
"I'm off the clock, Dr. Cromwell. Is something—"
"I don't have time to repeat myself." The line crackled with background shouting. "This is not a drill. We are at Code Atlas. I say again, Code Atlas. Get here in ten minutes or don't bother coming back at all."
Click.
Caroline sat frozen, the dial tone buzzing against her ear.
Code Atlas.
In all her years of training, she had only heard that term whispered in break rooms like a ghost story. It meant catastrophe. Mass casualties. A high-level terror threat. It meant the world was falling apart.
"I have to go," Caroline said, already grabbing her coat.
Preston scoffed, slamming his water glass down. "You're joking. What kind of emergency could a nurse possibly have? We haven't even ordered."
"It's a Code Atlas," she said, not caring if he understood. She pulled a fifty-dollar bill from her wallet and dropped it on his pristine white tablecloth. "This covers my share of nothing. Goodbye, Preston."
She didn't wait for his face to finish flushing red. She turned on her heel and practically sprinted out of the restaurant.
The Washington air hit her in a heavy, soaking downpour. Adrenaline washed away the lingering disgust of the date. She flagged down a cab dropping someone off at the corner, sliding into the back seat before the passenger was fully on the curb.
"Washington United Medical Center," she gasped. "Step on it."
By the time the cab screeched to a halt, the rain had slowed to a mist, but the chill in Caroline's bones only deepened.
She stepped out and stopped dead.
The hospital had been turned into a fortress.
The main entrance wasn't blocked by ambulances, but by military police. Two armored Humvees idled across the driveway, their headlights cutting through the fog. Men in full combat gear, rifles strapped to their chests, stood behind concrete barricades.
This wasn't a mass casualty event. This was a federal lockdown.
Heart hammering against her ribs, Caroline approached the nearest checkpoint, holding up her ID badge with a trembling hand. "Caroline Thompson. I was paged by Dr. Cromwell."
The guard, a soldier with eyes like flint, scanned her badge, checked a clipboard, and stepped aside. "Go straight to the main desk. Do not deviate from the hallway, ma'am."
Caroline slipped under the yellow tape. The lobby was unrecognizable. The usual chaotic symphony of the ER was gone, replaced by a suffocating, terrified silence. Doctors and nurses huddled in clusters. Armed soldiers lined the corridors like statues.
"Thompson!"
Dr. Cromwell was striding toward her. He looked like he had aged a decade since morning. His white coat was rumpled, a dark coffee stain splashed across his tie.
"Listen carefully, I don't have time for questions," he snapped, his forehead gleaming with sweat. "You are assigned to ICU Room 3. You will monitor the patient's vitals. You will not speak to him. You will not touch any personal effects in the room. If his heart rate fluctuates by more than ten percent, you hit this button." He shoved a black pager into her palm. "Do you understand me?"
"Yes, sir."
"Go."
Caroline walked briskly toward the private elevator bank. The air smelled different here—sharper, metallic, like ozone and gunpowder.
As she turned the corner, the doors of the VIP elevator slid open. A group of people emerged, moving like a single, lethal organism. Men in dark suits. Military brass with medals gleaming.
But they were just background noise.
In the center, walking slightly ahead, was a man who looked like he had been carved from granite and violence.
He was well over six feet, his shoulders straining the seams of his digital camouflage uniform. The rank on his chest—a silver eagle—demanded absolute submission. His face was a landscape of sharp angles and hard lines, his jaw set like a steel trap.
As the group passed, the man turned his head.
His eyes—a cold, piercing, impossible gray—swept the corridor. And for a fraction of a second, his gaze locked onto Caroline's.
It was like stepping onto a landmine.
The air was violently sucked from her lungs. A jolt of pure, electric heat shot down her spine, freezing her blood. Those eyes didn't just look at her; they stripped her down, assessed her threat level, and branded her in the span of a single heartbeat.
"Colonel Romero," an aide murmured, handing the man a classified tablet.
The spell shattered. The man—Colonel Romero—broke eye contact, taking the tablet without missing a stride. He began firing off orders in a low, gravelly voice that vibrated down the hallway.
Caroline let out a shaky breath, her knees suddenly weak. She hadn't realized she was holding onto the wall until a hand grabbed her arm.
"Are you breathing?" her friend Brenna whispered, pulling Caroline into a supply alcove. Brenna's face was paper-white. "Oh my god, Caroline. Did you see him?"
Caroline swallowed hard, her throat like sandpaper. "The Colonel?"
"Jarrod Romero," Brenna breathed, the name heavy with awe and terror. "Department of Defense. My cousin at the Pentagon says he's the guy they call when the world is ending." She clutched a medical chart to her chest. "He looks like he'd shoot you just for breathing his air."
Caroline rubbed the back of her neck, trying to dispel the lingering, phantom heat from that brief eye contact. "Where are you headed?"
"ICU 3. Cromwell's special assignment."
Brenna's eyes widened, all gossip vanishing instantly. "Oh, God. Caroline, be careful. That patient... this whole thing is black-ops. The FBI tried to get in twenty minutes ago and Romero's men turned them away at gunpoint."
"I just have to watch the monitors," Caroline said, though her voice lacked conviction.
She grabbed a supply cart and pushed through the double doors of the ICU wing. They hissed shut behind her, sealing her in a sterile, fluorescent-lit silence.
Two MPs stood outside Room 3, their faces blank masks. They checked her badge twice before unlocking the door.
The room was freezing. The steady beep-beep of the heart monitor was the only sound.
In the bed lay a young man, motionless. His face was a swollen canvas of bruises, thick bandages wrapping his torso. Caroline moved to the bedside, picking up the chart.
Alston Petersen. Lieutenant. JAG Corps.
The list of his injuries read like a torture report.
She set the chart down, her eyes fixed on the rhythmic spike of the heart monitor. Her pulse thrummed in her ears.
She had told Brenna she just had to watch the monitors. But standing in the freezing room, looking at the broken soldier, Caroline knew the truth.
She had just walked into the eye of a very deadly storm. And the man with the ice-gray eyes was the one holding the lightning.
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Beloved Wife Of The God Of War
My mother in law hated me so much cause I couldn't bear her son a baby eventhough my husband and I have spent six years in marriage. She desperately wants my husband to divorce me so she and my bestfriend set me up to be f*cked by a stranger. When my husband heard of this, he mocked me and divorced me. While painfully dragging my luggage out of his house, I saw my pregnant bestfriend carrying her luggage inside my husband's house. Turns out my husband has impregnated my bestfriend. I cried blood and left the city. Seven years later, I became a popular Surgeon General and now have beautiful triplets by my side. But I was deployed back to my city cause my medical skill was most needed. In a twist of fate, I got married to an handsome solider. Only after I resumed work did I find out that the soldier I just married is the five star General, leader of every military units in the country plus he was by far the wealthiest man in the country. I'm just a single mother trying to create a better life for my three kids, now that I found myself entangled in his cold and ruthless world, how will I survive? And how will I explain to him that I do not know how my triplets bore the same resemblance with him?
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My Baby's Daddy Is Mr CEO
It was Valentine`s day; the day of love. Arianna had gone out with for a date with her boyfriend, she was expecting him to pop the question tonight but instead, he did the exact opposite. He announced that the relationship was not working and he couldn't push on anymore. So he walked out of her life and out of the country as well. She was broken, ended up in a bar where she intended to drink away her sorrows. She got tipsy and that's when Mr. handsome stranger showed up. The both ended up in a hotel room and the next morning before she could wake up, he was gone. Only if she knew that the one night stand would lead to an unexpected pregnancy. She was pregnant for someone whose name she didn't even know, a complete stranger. Six months later, she bumps into a magazine with his picture "Oliver Gomez; Business man of the year" That's when she realizes that her Baby`s Daddy Is Mr. CEO!! She confronts him but the billionaire CEO denies it, however she is not going to give up, not without a fight.
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Billionaire's Regret: CEO Wants Mother Of Twin Back
Lily was the wife of the richest and most powerful man in the continent, but because she couldn't conceive an heir for her husband, everyone treated her without respect including her husband. After five years, she finally conceived but her husband, Drake Bell believed her pregnancy was a result of an affair she has because he never had any intimacy with her ever since his childhood sweetheart returned back to his life and that was a year ago. Hence, he took Lily to the hospital and enforce an abortion on her pregnancy eventhough it was against her will. Broken, battered and wasted, Lily dropped a divorce paper on the table and left her husband's villa. The wife of the richest man in the continent ended up being homeless and sleeping on the street but two weeks later, she started experiencing strange symptoms. On visiting the hospital, she was told she was pregnant. Many years later, Drake Bell knelt before Lily and begged her and her twin to come to him but Lily was already a top designer with enough money in her account, she has more than enough to take care of herself and her kids, as for Drake Bell, she told him to rot in hell. But destiny can be tricky, could there a possibility of love between Drake Bell and Lily considering Drake Bell's unforgivable act in the past?
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One Night With Blaze
Blaze Arden Vaughn is an heir of a huge empire, an ace student of medical faculty, very handsome, sweet and nice. His name signifies fire but his heart is as cold as ice. Ace Daxton Anderson is a known 'one night stand' guy and a bi. A gang leader who won't back down from a gang fight and is not afraid to be bruised just to prove his point. They are both in the same university but they have their own territory and never knew each other's existence. Until the day that the Ice Prince fixed his cold gaze on the very hot gang leader on the field. "You want me that bad...that your eyes are screaming it out loud..." Blaze announced with his challenging tone and a calm smile, making Ace's jaw clenched while their gazes locked. "I can smell your desire even from afar..." Blaze continued with a very subtle smirk, making Ace grit his teeth. "Who would not...you are Blaze Arden Vaughn...the epitome of perfection...everybody's dream guy" Ace sarcastically responded, a smirk grazed his lips. His jaw clenching in annoyance not with Blaze but with himself. "So Ace Anderson, want to try, a Blaze Arden Vaughn for tonight?" Blaze smirked as he casually ask, making the grim face of the gang leader looked stunned and dumbfounded. A one night stand offered by the cold and distant Blaze Arden Vaughn, just one night of pleasure... one night of curiosity.
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Love Slave to the Mafia Boss's Passion
[WARNING: MATURE CONTENT] "Each time you break a rule; I'll claim a part of your body as mine" Forced to marry the heir of the largest mafia syndicate to pay for her parent's debt and her grandmother's hospital bills. "Live with my son for 30 days, if you don't fall in love with him, I'll cancel this contract." Can Malissa live with the handsome, hot and dominating Hayden for 30 days without falling for his charms? However, there are rules to living with this lusty monster and as Malissa breaks them, she learns of pleasures that she never knew existed. As his touches set her on fire, her heart starts to melt. But does the two have a future together when Hayden is in love with someone else and Malissa cannot get over her ex-boyfriend? READ NOW to find out!
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UGLY SCARS
"Where the hell is Victoria?!" Mrs. Langston's scream echoed through the hall, her voice trembling with anger. Everyone looked as confused as she was-the bride at the altar wasn't her daughter. **** Victoria Langston-powerful, ambitious, and determined to save her family's legacy, even at the cost
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Mafia's Scars
Yelena: Scarred, Haunted by her nightmares, and completely alone. Domenico: Powerful, Boss of the underworld, and Possessive of one person. They met back in high school and almost fell in love when Yelena was betrayed by Dom so she ran away for two years. Dom didn't stop looking for her until he
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Gilded scars
Emma Hart is a woman who grew up in the foster care system after being abandoned by her biological family. Her life takes a dramatic turn when she befriends Clara Vanderbilt, the free-spirited daughter of a reclusive billionaire. Drawn into Clara's glittering world of wealth, but beneath the surface
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Hidden Scars
Alex, a young man who escapes domestic violence with his mother. However, their lives take a dark turn when his mother marries Toni, a man with a hidden secret. Toni is attracted to Alex and their relationship becomes abusive. Tragedy strikes when Alex's mother dies in a hit-and-run accident, leadin
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The Scars
"Use this to treat your scars," Reno suggested. My mouth muffled in stun as soon as a plaster moved to my palm, and in a response to my silence, he trudged to the lift with both of his hands buried beneath his pants pockets. "Surviving without scars in the toxic world is beyond healing, " I mumbl
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Buried Scars
"Oh My God, Elena this is insane" Luke squealed, shaking her. "This is soo coool." "This is not cool." "It is. Damn, you can tell when people are saying the truth or not," he said, Elena arching an eyebrow. "It's not cool to know when people are lying. I mean we are humans, let's all lie when we
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Scars & Shadows
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My Hidden Scars
WARNING! This novel contains scenes of bullying and rape neither of which I condone. If either of there affect you please do not continue to read. ‘Please stop I’ll do anything.’ ‘You promised me Lil, you promised me if I made it stop you would give me what I wanted. I done as you asked now you’r
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The Scars We Carry
The heavy iron gate of the juvenile detention center groaned open, a sound I had dreamed of for five long years. I stepped out, a small, warm hand in mine-Leo' s. He was my only good thing from that hellhole, a promise to his dying mother. But freedom felt just as suffocating as my cell, because t
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LOVE, SCARS AND REVENGE
Nicole was celebrating her 20th birthday at home with her parents and younger brother over a nice dinner when six gang members broke into their house, robbed them of all valuables and the gang leader even raped her and they ended up killing her parents as well. Nicole was completely shattered and th
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A Wife's Undeniable Scars
After seven years of marriage and a heartbreaking miscarriage, the two pink lines on the pregnancy test felt like a miracle. I couldn't wait to tell my husband, Drake, the man who had held me through every painful infertility treatment. On my way to find him, I saw him in a park with a woman and a
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The Cowboy's Scars
Connor Mcjunkin has never experienced complete joy and happiness in his life. Just when he thought his dreams were within his reach, a tragedy occurred that took it further away from his grasp. He withdrew and focused on his ranch and animals and is content with that, or so he thinks. Rosemary Doug
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Her scars, his obsession
She is called the rare gem, but when her father died, Ava inherited nothing but betrayal wrapped in hell and ice. Her step-sister, Ivana, who by character is the devil's bride, took it all. The company Ava built from dust, the legacy that bore her name, and worst, her husband. Stripped of everythi
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BETWEEN THE SCARS
Patricia Xavier Saliem holds a grudge and is traumatized by the accident that took her mother's life. Since then, her goal in life has only been one: to find the suspicious man on the day her mother died. However, Patricia's plans are thwarted when she meets Bram-CEO of the company she works for-who
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Some Scars Never Fade
"August, 1865 The War is over and as America is trying to recover, Nicholas Gregson is trying to get used to his civilian life. But the deep scar on the side of his face will always remind him of the most violent war in America. One windy day, Nicholas gets a visit from his former General with
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Shattered Trust, Silent Scars
My marriage to Sylvia Lind, a strategic alliance between my new money and her old-money family, appeared perfect for five years. But at a Sotheby's auction, Sylvia suddenly outbid me on a vintage Patek Philippe watch I wanted, only to gift it to her new young intern, Caleb, whose resemblance to my
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New Beginnings, Old Scars
The tech industry' s golden couple, Mark Stone and I, stood basking in the spotlight, a symbol of shared dreams and billion-dollar success. But that dream shattered when an anonymous email revealed Mark's decade-long betrayal: he wasn't just having an affair with Chloe Davis, our rival, but funding
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Love Beyond The Scars
For five long years, Ethan Miller lived in silent devotion to Victoria Davenport, pushing her wheelchair, fulfilling her every demand, and harboring a desperate love he believed would someday be reciprocated. He considered himself her devoted world, her hands and feet, following her tragic horseba
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A Thousand Scars: Ava's Awakening
Ava Chen stood beside Julian Vance, tech billionaire, her fiancé. Tonight was their engagement announcement at a dazzling Silicon Valley gala. Everything seemed picture-perfect. Then, the ballroom doors opened, and in walked Seraphina Reed, Julian' s ex, the "White Redwood." Julian froze, droppi
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The Scars Of Her Disdain
The hospital air, cold and sterile, usually a familiar hum, felt wrong that day. My sister, Lily, lay broken and small in that bed, her artist' s hands swollen and bandaged, a machine breathing for her. Someone had done this. The doctor' s words-"blunt force trauma," "critical condition"-blurred i
